Beating the Odds
by elsiecarson
Summary: Clarisse's eldest son Pierre comes to visit after Clarisse and Joe have gotten married. This story shows Clarisse's nervousness and Pierre's reaction. It also solidifies Clarisse and Joe's relationship.
1. Waiting

Clarisse paces up and down the sitting room in her suite. She is waiting for someone; someone special, someone important. She hasn't seen him for three years though why that is she was never sure. He is coming back now because she'd gotten married very unexpectedly.

Clarisse is the former Queen of Genovia (having just abdicated in favour of her granddaughter) and she has married her former head of security, Joseph. She's discovered after much soul searching that he is the love of her life. This thought process is interrupted by her husband.

"Clarisse, for heaven's sake, sit down! You're making me nervous!" Joseph cries. "Pierre will be here soon, don't worry so much."

Clarisse chuckles nervously and continues pacing. Trust Joseph to say a thing like that she thinks. Pierre is her eldest son and he is a priest. She is nervous about what he will say about her marriage. She goes and stands by the large window waiting for her son's car to pull up. Her youngest son died in a car accident seven years ago.

Joseph smiles at his wife. He knows she is nervous about her son's reaction, when it comes down to it, so is he. They both know that Pierre's opinion is important to both of them. Suddenly, Clarisse looks up as she sees movement outside the window. "He's here!" she cries. "He's finally arrived!"

"Come and sit down, Clarisse. You're going to make Pierre as nervous as you're making me," Joseph requests, taking her hand and sitting down on the sofa together.

Clarisse sighs. She knows it is pointless to resist Joseph when he is in such a mood. She slips her shoes off, curls her feet under her and drops her head onto Joseph's shoulder. She is glad to have a moment just the two of them before Pierre arrives.


	2. Pierre's Arrival

Your Majesty, Prince Pierre has arrived." Charlotte enters the suite and tells the Queen.

"Thank you, Charlotte, send him up as soon as he's ready." Clarisse says calmly for all the nervousness she feels.

"Are you sure that shouldn't be when you're ready Your Majesty?" Charlotte asks timidly.

"No, you heard me correctly, Charlotte. Pierre will always be welcome to see me whenever, you know that." Clarisse says almost coldly.

"Yes, ma'am." Charlotte says backing quietly out of the room. She goes downstairs to meet Pierre and she knows what his first question will be: where's my mother? Charlotte is worried about Pierre's reaction because a negative reaction will bring down the whole mood of the castle.


	3. Talking to Pierre

"Hello, Charlotte," Pierre says warmly as he sees her in the foyer. "Where's mother?"

Charlotte chuckles. Somehow she knows Pierre better than perhaps she thinks she should. When it comes down to it Charlotte had had a huge crush on Pierre when she was younger. She decides to just answer his question. "She's upstairs in her sitting room with Joseph waiting for you. She's been anxiously awaiting your arrival since she received your letter."

"I'm sure; she's never been a patient person when waiting for anyone she loves. Tell me Charlotte do Joseph and my mother love each other as much as they seem to?" Pierre is curious about his mother's new relationship.

"I think you'll see for yourself when you see them, Your Royal Highness." Charlotte says quietly. She doesn't want to meddle in family affairs. She feels it isn't her place to explain Clarisse and Joseph's marriage to Pierre; that is his mother's job.

"All right, I won't pressure you although I'd like to. Let's go see my mother, and see if I can pick up on how happy she is. If you're wrong though, I will be most seriously displeased." Pierre teases Charlotte as he used to when he lived at the palace.

"This is one thing I'm sure I'm not wrong about, Your Royal Highness. Your mother is radiant and glowing. She hasn't looked like that since before Philippe died." Charlotte speaks quietly.

"Thank you, Charlotte," Pierre says as they reach the door to his mother's suite.

"You can go in whenever you're ready, sir." Charlotte says. "Please forgive me, but I should get back to work."

"Of course," Pierre says. "Again, thank you, Charlotte."

"You're welcome, sir" and with that Charlotte is gone.


	4. Meeting Mother

Pierre takes a deep breath, takes hold of the doorknob and pushes open the door. The minute he does that his mother has thrown herself into his arms. "Hello, darling!" Clarisse cries. "I'm so glad to see you. I've missed you; you've missed so much since you left."

"So I noticed." Pierre says serious the second he enters. He picks up his mother's hands and looks at the left one which is now bereft of the rings he's been so accustomed to seeing her wear. The rings his father had given her; the gaudy, oversize, royal-looking rings. What replaces them is a plain gold wedding band, which even to him, a Catholic priest, holds so much meaning and above her wedding ring sits a simple diamond solitaire engagement ring.

"Well, Pierre, we would have invited you, but it was rather rushed as you know." Clarisse says blushing slightly.

Instantly Joseph is at her side trying to defend his lovely wife against the onslaught of questions he knows are about to come pouring from Pierre in a moment. He is finding, however, that even a simple hello is difficult and words are becoming caught in his throat. "Hello, Pierre," Joseph says quietly as he extends his hand to his son-in-law. "I hope your trip went well."

"Hello, Joseph," Pierre says stiffly as he briefly shakes his hand. He and Joseph used to be close. "My trip was fine, thank you for asking."


	5. Tea Time

The tension in the room has risen when Joseph has has noticed and in order to diffuse the escalating situation she decides to be diplomatic. "I don't know about you two boys, but I'm thirsty. Who's for tea?"

"No thank you, mother," Pierre says stiffly. He knows his mother's stall tactics and they aren't going to work this time.

"I'll have tea, if you're going to, darling," Joseph says nonchalantly.

A moment later Olivia walks in carrying a tea tray. "Thank you, Olivia that will be all. We are not to be disturbed until dinner, unless someone is requested is that understood?"

"Yes, ma'am" Olivia says as she leaves the room


	6. Let Me Explain

Clarisse pours the tea and the three sit in relative silence until Pierre can't stand it anymore. "All right enough stalling, what in the world made the two of you think you could just get married?"

"I BEG your pardon," Clarisse says as she splutters tea onto the coffee table. "How dare you come in here and start with such a question! The presumption of you, my boy, I can't believe it! How rude!" she's jumped from the sofa upon hearing her son's question.

"Clarisse calm down," Joseph requests stepping behind her.

"I will not calm down. My son seems to think I have no right to get married, at all! I'm not a child, Pierre, and I'm not a member of your parish. I am your mother and you will treat me and my husband with a little respect!" Clarisse is livid.

"Mother, all I meant was that I wondered when you decided and when this all became so serious because I knew absolutely nothing about this. I'm confused is all, an explanation of how this all came about would be nice. Don't you think I have a right to know? I am your son after all." Pierre says backtracking trying to make it sound less rude than it actually is.

"It's hard to know when I actually fell in love with Joseph, though I suspect it was when he was there for me when your brother died. I didn't realize that I loved him until we danced together after Mia's dance lesson in San Francisco. The day we got married was supposed to be Mia's wedding day, but she realized she didn't love Andrew and so she called the wedding off, but before the guests left she told me that just because she didn't get her fairytale ending didn't mean I shouldn't get mine. I proposed to Joseph and we walked down the aisle and got married." Clarisse says softly. Joseph knows she is nervous and he reaches for her hand and holds it tight. This calms her down immediately. His touch has always been calming for her.

"Well, you certainly have been a calming influence on her if nothing else, Joseph." Pierre says with a slight bit of surprise, and a conspiratorial smile. He is extremely glad to see his mother at ease and relaxed especially with a man. She'd never been relaxed with his father. "I have to give you credit for that. I didn't think anyone could calm my mother down that quickly."

"Ouch, it's a good thing you said that Pierre. I don't think even I could have gotten away with saying anything close to that. I must agree, however, seeing Clarisse relaxed is rare. You should have seen her before you arrived; she was even making me nervous and I'm the well known rock of Gibraltar." Joseph says as the two men joke back and forth.

Clarisse smiles as she watches the scene. She is happy her husband and her son can get along so well. "Joseph you are such a tease. You were just as nervous as I was only you managed to hide it better than I did. He was really paranoid about your reaction in all honesty, Pierre."

"I don't why the two of you were so nervous. I would have supported the two of you getting married no matter what. When Philippe and I were younger we used to wish that Joseph was our father instead of father because father was so harsh." Pierre smiles at his mother's obvious shock at his statement.

"You never told me any of this. I'm glad that you and Joseph are going to get along though because I want to spend more time with you now that I'm not queen anymore. I hope you don't mind if I start barging in on your life a little bit more." Clarisse says as she clutches Pierre's hand over the top of the coffee table.

"I just wish you'd never had to put all this strain on yourself because you had to do this job after father died. It wasn't fair, but for all that you did a spectacular job. It will be nice to see you more often and see you go on vacation for you rather than your country." Pierre smiles gently at his mother. "So, when do you two go on your official honeymoon where the press gets to invade and take pictures once a week?"

"We may never go. I'm liking this life away from the press most of the time and I don't want it to change. Besides Joseph and the press don't get along well and I'd hate for him to say something rude and be forever remembered as the guy that was rude to the nicest press corps in the world." Clarisse smiles cheekily at her husband and her son.

"Oh, mother, be serious. You should go on honeymoon. You've never travelled for yourself and this is your chance. You should go somewhere that the two of you have always wanted to go and just go enjoy; you deserve it and you are so worth it." Pierre says sincerely to his mother.

"Pierre's right, darling, you need a vacation for you. I'm very lucky that I can be a part of all this with you." Joseph says as he pours himself another cup of tea. He is drinking more of it now that he is with Clarisse. He hardly ever orders coffee any more, though that used to be his drink of choice, much to Clarisse's delight.


	7. Teasing

Pierre watches Joseph with admiration. He is poised and debonair and masculine even while pouring tea into a floral teacup.

"Your mother got to me. She converts everyone to the way of tea eventually. She finally got to me." Joseph said as he teases Pierre and Clarisse.

"I wondered how long it would take. Father even ended up drinking tea with mother and he hated tea." Pierre says winking at Joseph.

"Oh, for heaven's sake, I'm not that bad." Clarisse says in an almost exasperated tone. Secretly she finds the conversation funny.

"Yes, it is. It's actually a secret addiction that's not so secret. She has to have tea or she goes into terrible withdrawal and she gets all crabby." Joseph says as he goes to the snack cupboard and pulls out a bag of Fuzzy Peaches: his very favourite candy in the whole world.

"Are you sharing after you berated me?" Clarisse asks as she puts her hand on Joseph's shoulder.

"You don't like these candies. Your favourites are in the cupboard too." Joseph says as he pulls the bag away from Clarisse.

"You're mean." Clarisse pouts as she goes over to her secret snack stash and retrieves a bag of Swedish Berries.

"See what I have to put up with, Pierre? She's just devilish." Joseph says teasing his wife. He enjoys moments like this.

"Oh you two are terrible. What am I going to do with you? I can't take the two of you anywhere. I'm amazed that the two of you haven't been in more trouble with the media." Clarisse says as she finally relaxes with her husband and her son.

"Mother, it's wonderful. You're so calm and happy. I never thought I'd see you like this. Is there a tape of your wedding or photos or something? I feel rather badly that I missed it now that I see the two of you together." Pierre asks gently.

Clarisse silently stands up and goes to get the wedding album sitting on the shelf. Next to the album sits a DVD copy of the wedding sent to them by the wedding photographer. "Look at the pictures first. They're nicer. The video looks a little haphazard."

"I'm sure they're both beautiful. It's an expression of love and that's the most important thing." Pierre says taking the pristine photo album from his mother.


End file.
